Serving Those Who Serve

BY BISHOP JOSEPH COFFEY

As the Vicar for Veterans Affairs for the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, it is a great honor to travel around the United States visiting the Medical Centers (VAMC’s) of the Department of Veterans Affairs, representing Archbishop Timothy Broglio. The Archbishop is the proper pastor for all the faithful of the U.S. military and VA. I am privileged to make pastoral visits and minister to our Catholic priest-chaplains who work at the VA hospitals. This past April was a particularly busy time for me. I drove a total of 4,500 miles visiting VA Medical Centers in several states. I would love to write about all the veterans medical centers, the great priest-chaplains, and their excellent work, but I will offer just a few highlights. On 26 April 2022, I visited the VA Medical Center in North Providence, RI, which Father T.J. Varghese is serving. I had the added privilege of administering the sacrament of confirmation to some members of his parish in North Providence, where Father Varghese doubles as part-time chaplain at the local VA Medical Center and the pastor of a busy parish. I then drove to the Boston area, where our great Catholic priests serve in three different VA Medical Centers. The Chief Chaplain of the VA Medical Center for the Boston area is Father Barry Eneh. Together with Father Peter Francis, they also cover the Brockton location. In addition, Father Robert Roetzel, a former Army Chaplain, Father Marc Fallon, and Father Bruce Teague cover the Roxbury and Jamaica Plains locations. I coordinated my visit on the same day they had their monthly area-wide training. We then had a nice dinner at a local restaurant and enjoyed some of the famous Boston seafood. I also visited the VAMC in Charleston, S.C., which Father Lawrence Abara serves. The VA in Charleston is named in honor of Ralph H. Johnson, a U.S. Marine killed in action during the Vietnam War as a member of Company A, First Recon Battalion and First Marine Division. In March

1968, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism. Only 19 years old when he died, he is buried at the Beaufort, South Carolina National Cemetery. It is always an honor to visit the veterans and thank them for their service to our country. In addition, we thank the many Catholic priest-chaplains who dedicate themselves selflessly to the pastoral care of our veterans and their families. May the Lord continue to bless them. V

BISHOP JOSEPH COFFEY AND FATHER LAWRENCE ABARA

BISHOP COFFEY, FATHER VARGHESE AND THE CONFIRMATION CLASS IN NORTH PROVIDENCE, RI.

Newly Co-Sponsored Seminarians Gather for First-Ever “Welcome Aboard” Event in the Nation’s Capital

BY TAYLOR HENRY

Memorial Day Weekend was a working holiday of sorts for a select group of ten young men, whether early in seminary formation or about to enter seminary, in hopes of becoming Catholic priests and U.S. Military chaplains. For the first time ever, the Vocations Office of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA (AMS), under the leadership of Vocations Director Father S. Matthew Gray, hosted a formal “Welcome Aboard” gathering in Washington, D.C., for the incoming harvest of new Co-Sponsored Seminarians. “Co-sponsored” means the AMS shares the cost of each man’s seminary formation with his home diocese or religious community.

Among those gathered was 24-year-old Samuel S. McPeak of Chesterfield, VA. Making small talk over the course of the four-day schedule of briefings, breakout sessions, and other activities, Mr. McPeak, an “army brat”—his parents were both career Army officers—tells a compelling story behind the “really long journey” to discern his vocation. “The seed was planted,” he says, in June 2012, when then-Auxiliary Bishop Richard B. Higgins of the AMS celebrated confirmation for Mr. McPeak and his classmates at Saint Martin of Tours Catholic Community, Fort Lee, VA.

Mr. McPeak recalls how Bishop Higgins, during his homily, “pointed at me and said, ‘Have you ever thought about becoming a Catholic priest?’ And I vehemently just said, ‘No. Absolutely not. Never!’ But that seed had been planted and it continued to grow in me and through high school…. Immediately after high school I attended West Point for a time and I transferred out of West Point to have more freedom to discern the priesthood and ultimately that last couple of years after I graduated from the University of Richmond, I determined that yes, I had a call to serve in the Military and also, God willing, a Catholic priest.” Mr. McPeak hopes eventually to serve as a U.S. Army chaplain.

Mr. McPeak and his fellow prospective priest-chaplains converged on the Edwin Cardinal O’Brien Pastoral Center on Michigan Avenue in Northeast Washington, D.C., AMS home base, from all over the country — from Phoenix, AZ, to Indianapolis, IN, to Pensacola, FL — for the 26-29 May gathering. Capt. Mark J. Becker, USMC, 31, came in from Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Cherry Point in NC, where he was days away from separating from the Marine Corps to enter seminary in his home Diocese of Charlotte. "I've been discerning the priesthood for probably about two years now and actually dropped a request to leave the Marine Corps early. They let me leave about a year early and I definitely want to come back into the military.”

Capt. Becker said during his time in the service, he has seen firsthand how a chronic shortage of Catholic priests on active-duty sometimes makes it hard for Catholics who serve to exercise their faith, because there simply are not

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enough priests to go around. Only 189 priests are currently on active-duty in all service branches, serving a Catholic military population of approximately 300,000 plus their families. “There's a very great need there, it really did open my eyes to how great a need is there and how few priests are there to handle that need." Capt. Becker hopes to go back on active-duty as a U.S. Navy chaplain after his ordination.

Donovan Kelly, 23-years old, said he discerned his vocation while active in the Catholic community at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Atlanta where he was a student in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). “I experienced this really beautiful confluence of these two worlds coming together,” he said, “when I first fell in love with becoming a seminarian, becoming a chaplain candidate, and hopefully being a chaplain one day." Mr. Kelley is on track eventually to be ordained a priest in the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee. He hopes to serve as a U.S. Air Force chaplain.

“We've got some amazing men discerning the priesthood,” Father Gray said. “They're all just very faithful men. Men with a servant's heart. They love military members and they have this desire to serve them in all the branches. I think that's the unifying quality about all the men is that they have this servant's heart, the shepherd's heart, to serve and they're just amazing men.”

The addition of these ten men brings to 42 the total number currently in formation to become Catholic priests and U.S. military chaplains through the Co-Sponsored Seminarian Program. But the Military needs many more. “I'd like to encourage any young man, if you think God may be calling you to the priesthood and military chaplaincy, to reach out to us.” Father Gray can be reached in the AMS Vocations Office at vocations@ milarch.org or (202) 719-3600. He hopes to make the “Welcome Aboard” gathering an annual event, and any man who reaches out now just may be invited to the next one in 2023. V

The Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA

Pathway of Honor

Show your support for service members, veterans, chaplains, military families, and all who have served or continue to serve by reserving a commemorative brick today. Your brick will join hundreds of others lining the pathways of the Edwin Cardinal O’Brien Pastoral Center in Washington, D.C.

A suggested donation of $150 will ensure that the brick you order, in memory of your loved one, will be placed in the “Pathway of Honor”.

To order a brick, visit https://www.milarch.org/bricks/

You can donate online or print a donation form.

If you have any questions, please contact the Advancement Office at: (202) 719-3622 or support@milarch.org

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